ItsTheBlog™

The Boston Red Sox had an 8:00 pm game last night. It was Game 2 of the ALCS--pretty important by many standards. You very rarely (if ever) see an 8:00 pm start time on the West coast, because that would mean that those living on the East Coast wouldn't see the game until 11:00.

That said, 8:00 isn't too late, and it wasn't an awful choice. The problem? The Red Sox just take forever when they play.

While I wasn't watching the game, I remembered that the game was on at about 1:00 am. I checked to see who won. When I saw the box score that it was still going, I didn't really think about how late it was. Then, I realized that the game was being played about 2 miles from me, just across the Charles River at Fenway Park. I found that the game was on FOX and watched the top of the 11th.

If you're a baseball fan, you know the rest. Trot Nixon, former Boston fan favorite, singled in the go-ahead run, and was followed by an onslaught. 6 more would come around, capped off by a 3-run home run by Franklin Guttierez to break the game open, 13-6. By now, it was about 1:20 am.

Kids were long asleep, Boston turned cold(er), and the fans still in attendance were having their rides home threatened by the fact that the "T," the Boston subway system stops running about 1:30.

And there was still another half-inning to go.

Thankfully, it ended quickly, and Boston failed to score in the bottom of the 9th. But, this is just another awful example of East Coast sports gone bad. 1:30 in the morning, really? This game is supposed to be prime-time. Granted, I realize that this one just went ridiculously late, but come on. 5 hours and 14 minutes for only 11 innings? We all know the Red Sox take forever; start the game (at least) an hour earlier than that.

And then, of course, there are those games that happen on the West Coast and you have to watch them on the east coast. I'm not a fan of watching Laker games until 2:00 a.m. And it happens often. Games at 7:30 in Los Angeles start at 10:30 in Boston, and finish between 1-2 am. Not cool.

Even the newspapers are unable to report those scores the next morning, it's so late. That even happened last night here in Boston, with the Sunday Boston Globe headline saying simply that the Red Sox were "caught in another classic." No results. No score. Sad.

Undoubtedly, many fans were irritated this morning after falling asleep in front of the television a little after midnight only to find out that their beloved Sox had been ripped apart in the 11th by the Tribe. At least we've got a series again.

Labels: ALCS, Baseball, Beantown, East Coast, fans, Indians, Kevdog, Lakers, playoffs, Red Sox

A 1 hour layover in Boston means only one thing for me: How much of Beantown can I observe from the airport? Answer: very little. What I did notice was, that out of probably 100 different people I saw walk by me as I was waiting for my connecting flight to DC, about 65 of them had either a Bo Sox hat or shirt on. As I frantically searched through my carry on to see if I could find my Angels hat to dawn (No I didn't crap out like Boyd and Kevin when they were scared to wear their Angels hats to the Yanks/Angels game), I realized, "Man, these fans are hardcore."

I never stepped foot outside the airport in Boston, but I could tell these fans were actually baseball fans. It was 4:45 in the morning and those colors didn't run. Nevermind the fact that I didn't speak to a single fan, I just built a bit of an image of a true baseball fan from that scene at the airport. I bet these fans truly appreciate advancing runners to 2nd and 3rd with less then 2 outs, or moving from 1st to 3rd on a single. I think Southern California is being groomed into that, but we're not there yet.

Ok this post is being cut incredibly short, time to go pick up Alexa from the airport...

Labels: Beantown, fans